Network Reliability Design: Combinatorial and Monte Carlo Approach

Keywords

Abstract

In this paper we consider network optimal ”reorganization”
problem. We mean by that network reliability improve
ment achieved by two operations: reinforcement of a cer
tain number of its most important components and elimi
nation (”trimming”) of the least important ones. The rein
forcement is made by replacing a given number of compo
nents by more reliable ones in order to maximize network
reliability. Trimming is made by elimination of the com
ponents which make the smallest contribution to network
reliability.
The decisions on reinforcing/trimming are based on
calculating network reliability gradient function and the
component Birnbaum importance measures (BIM’s).